MIND BENDING PAUL SPENARD

Paul Spenard

Mind bending? Illusions? Whether a skeptic or a believer, it is interesting and thought provoking. I have to admit to fascination at watching Illusionists, Magicians, Mind Benders. For some of us it’s fun, for others it’s life. Either way, I’m open to all possibilities in life, until they become impossibilities. 

Enter Paul Spenard. Tech geek by day, gamergeek by night, urban street magician by Art. According to Paul he’s Mind bending and freaking people out in a good way!

Paul, that’s a mind numbing list of activities you’ve got there. Tech, Game Geek, Magician. Is your mind going 24 hours a day?

Oh yes it never stops. I have an overactive imagination so I am constantly coming up with new ideas. My tag line on my website and performance is "make noise with your imagination". Needless to say I have no concept of the term "being bored". I worked as an archaeologist and that really opened up my mind to new things an how people came to where we are now. So now I just stress for people to open up their minds and just have fun. Life is more about experiencing it then being serious and close minded. Life is what gets in the way of what you really want to be doing - so enjoy it.

Do all of these loves fuel each other?
Yes very much so. I combine technology, archeology and old cultures with magic and am always looking at ways I can marry the two. I could never actually marry magic or tech for that is not legal even here in Canada. Just the idea of divorce and settlement with technology could be ugly!

I work in the high paced world of cell technology for my day job and it is always changing keeping me on my toes. This fuels my magic where I am always looking at changing it and adding in cool tech. I have illusions with my Iphone that bend people's minds pretty well. I call my illusions "mind bends". One I slide a $2 coin (twonie) inside my iphone to have it rattle around.

Let’s talk about your Mind Bending Magic. So when did you fall in love with Magic? Which by the way, I find exciting just by the very sound of the word LOL.

I got hooked on magic at a very young age. My parents took me to a staff christmas party when I was like 6 or so. The magician was a guy just starting out and working kids parties. I got pulled up onto the stage and he tied long ropes around my waist giving the ends to 2 other kids on either side of me. He put a pair of prank glasses on me - the ones that the fake eyeballs spring out on bouncy springs. The kids pulled on the ropes and at the same time the eyes sprang out on springs on the glasses. SNAP! BOING! The ropes came through my body and the eyes popped out. Enter my mom now freaking out. She thought he popped my eyes out! I was hooked ever since. My dad bought me magic kits and I was a little junior Mind Bender in training since then.

The young magician was Doug Henning and he went onto world fame. I met him in a magic store years later and he remembered me "hey you were the boy whose mom freaked out!". That put over the next step and I began performing for more than my family and friends after that.

What is your favorite Illusion?

I have several favorites. I have to pick? I love the ones where people get the delayed effect. I like to hit them with double whammies. I do one bend where I take a matchbox and seamlessly slide a large needle right through the center of it. I pierce the needle through several places in the box and it appears as if nothing is inside the box. I then place the matchbox on a person's hand and after my dialogue which adds to the effect they notice something is very heavy inside the matchbox. They slide open the matchbox which they notice is very heavy and inside is a solid rectangle of brass that fits the matchbox entirely.

The double whammy happens next. I explain to them that through out all of the performance no one has noticed that my shoelace has been untied. They are all watching my hands and ALL fail to realize the glaring obvious that my shoelace has been untied the entire time. The funny part is that they just noticed only when I pointed it out. I then point down and the shoelace and it then magically ties itself up. I pull up my pant leg to show there is no strange device tying up my shoelace on its own.

I love the double whammy mind bends.

Do you perform professionally? If so, tell me about the audience. I find it interesting and funny that when I go to a Magic Show there are usually more adults then kids. What do you think about that? (although I am a big kid LOL)

Yes I perform professionally for the people on the street or parties I am hired at. I do close up magic where people can get as close as they want. I perform as a busker mostly on the street and at festivals. All the money I make on the street goes to the Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta. It is a great charity I am 100% behind and I hope to perform at their Kid's camps this year where children with cancer get to play as kids and be around other kids who are all fighting the same fight.

The american half dollar switches places with a chinese coin with a hole in it under the ladies hand.

Magic brings out the kid in all of us.

I love doing magic for adults for they are the majority of my audience on the street. I love doing magic for kids that does not insult their intelligence but gets them to think. After all my motto is "make lots of noise with your imagination"

Everyone will enjoy watching a video of your magic. Including me!
I can't wait to film one especially for you and your audience. I am a videographer as well and focus on filming fellow performers and models and fashion designers/shows. I am getting a video done specifically for you and your audience. Stay tuned!

Well Thank you Paul!


Paul's website www.mind-bender.com is Magically appearing and will be up and running shortly. I will notify you once he gets it rolling.

You can also find Paul at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Paul-Spenard-Mind-bending-Magic/

Magic is getting popular again and I think it is because we want to step back from technology. We are constantly barraged by it at work and at home. Magic for a brief moment just takes people to a place where they escape to sheer wonder and mystery. I tell people the true thing about magic is not trying to figure it out - but to just let yourself loose in it and realize there are things out there we just don't know. So why sweat it?

Thank you for the opportunity to share my little piece of my world with you all.
Thank you! What fun.

A key magically turns on the palm of my hand by a mysterious key turning ghost!

Thank you so much Paul!

Folks, the big kid in me is fascinated. I hope you had as much fun visiting with Paul as I did. Stay tuned for more of Paul in the future.  Working on getting footage for the show :-)

Life is good!
Steph